{"id":17225,"date":"2025-05-02T06:25:13","date_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/17225\/"},"modified":"2025-05-02T06:25:13","modified_gmt":"2025-05-02T06:25:13","slug":"colts-pick-clemson-de-tj-parker-in-espns-early-mock","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/17225\/","title":{"rendered":"Colts pick Clemson DE TJ Parker in ESPN’s early mock"},"content":{"rendered":"

In ESPN’s way-too-early 2026 NFL mock draft, the Indianapolis Colts add another pass rusher.<\/p>\n

Wait, a 2026 NFL mock draft? That’s right, a 2026 NFL mock draft. ESPN’s Jordan Reid <\/a>is already taking a way-too-early look ahead to next April for the Indianapolis Colts <\/a>and the rest of the league.<\/p>\n

The Super Bowl odds are what Reid used to determine the draft order. So for the Colts<\/a>, they are picking at ninth overall.<\/p>\n

It’s important to note that making an accurate projection is a nearly impossible task, so this exercise is more so about putting some of the top prospects on our radars prior to the college football season beginning.<\/p>\n

Also, if the Colts are picking inside the top 10 next year, you can assume they will be taking a quarterback in the draft as the team hits the reset button throughout the organization.<\/p>\n

However, in this mock, Reid had the Colts taking Clemson edge rusher TJ Parker.<\/p>\n

Now, you’re probably thinking, ‘another edge rusher?’ But if we look ahead to 2026, even with spending a 2024 first-round pick on Laiatu Latu and a 2025 second-round pick on JT Tuimoloau, this could still be a need in 2026 with Kwity Paye, Tyquan Lewis, and Samson Ebukam all set to be free agents next offseason.<\/p>\n

Parker’s production took a big jump from 2023 to 2024, as he went from 35 pressures and six sacks to 51 pressures and 12 sacks, according to PFF<\/a>. Among all edge defenders, Parker ranked 14th in total pressures, and for what it’s worth, he also graded out very well against the run by PFF’s metrics.<\/p>\n

“Parker had a breakout season in 2024, with 11 sacks, 16.5 tackles for loss and four forced fumbles,” Reid wrote. “He is a versatile player capable of playing from multiple pre-snap alignments and stances, using his length as a run defender and closing speed in the pass rush.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In ESPN’s way-too-early 2026 NFL mock draft, the Indianapolis Colts add another pass rusher. Wait, a 2026 NFL…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":17226,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2059],"tags":[247,265,2005,12,388,7,379,2004,392,2381,6654,4996,6657,667,6658,5900,248,267,88,6,245,537,6655,530,9,266,6656,4989],"class_list":{"0":"post-17225","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-indianapolis-colts","8":"tag-american","9":"tag-american-football","10":"tag-colts","11":"tag-espn","12":"tag-espn-inc","13":"tag-football","14":"tag-inc","15":"tag-indianapolis","16":"tag-indianapolis-colts","17":"tag-indianapoliscolts","18":"tag-kwity","19":"tag-kwity-paye","20":"tag-laiatu","21":"tag-laiatu-latu","22":"tag-latu","23":"tag-lewis","24":"tag-national","25":"tag-national-sports","26":"tag-news","27":"tag-nfl","28":"tag-overall","29":"tag-overall-positive","30":"tag-paye","31":"tag-positive","32":"tag-sports","33":"tag-sports-news","34":"tag-tyquan","35":"tag-tyquan-lewis"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nfl\/114436815203935713","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17225","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17225"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17225\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17226"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17225"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17225"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nfl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17225"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}